Psalms 136:1
Upon the rivers of Babylon, there we sat and wept: when we remembered Sion:
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- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Psalmus David, Jeremiæ. Super flumina Babylonis illic sedimus et flevimus, cum recordaremur Sion.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- Τῷ Δαυείδ Ἐπὶ τῶν ποταμῶν Βαβυλῶνος ἐκεῖ ἐκαθίσαμεν, καὶ ἐκλαύσαμεν ἐν τῷ μνησθῆναι ἡμᾶς τῆς Σιών·
- Hebrew (WLC) shown from Psalms 137:1
- עַ֥ל נַהֲר֨וֹת בָּבֶ֗ל שָׁ֣ם יָ֭שַׁבְנוּ גַּם בָּכִ֑ינוּ בְּ֝זָכְרֵ֗נוּ אֶת צִיּֽוֹן
Haydock's commentary
For Jeremias. For the time of Jeremias, and the captivity of Babylon. (Challoner)
Or "of" (Jeremiæ.; Haydock) Jeremias; on which subject he composed his Lamentations, as the Septuagint thus insinuate. (Worthington)
The title may be a later insertion, and is not the same in all the Greek or Latin copies. It is wholly omitted in Hebrew, &c. Theodoret blames those who have written the name of Jeremias, as he was never at Babylon. (Calmet)
He might send the psalm to the captives, (Grotius) though it were written by David, (Gerer.) who was a prophet. See Psalm lxxviii. (Berthier)
The captives express their sentiments at Babylon, (Bossuet) or at their return; (Calmet) and thus, under the figure of the earthly Jerusalem, (Berthier) aspire to heaven. (St. Augustine)
Rivers. Euphrates, &c. The Jews retired to such places to pray. (Philo, con. Flac.) (Acts xvi. 13.) (Haydock)
Sion, and all the ceremonies of religion. (Worthington)
From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.
The Fathers on this verse
St Augustine Expositions on the Book of Psalms, Psalm CXXXVII
1. …But to-day we have sung, “By the waters of Babylon we sat down and wept, when we remembered Sion” ( ver. 1 ).…
St John Chrysostom Homilies on First Corinthians, Homily XXXIII
Now, in the first place, not all things spoken in the Psalms by David, are spoken in the person of David. For it is he himself who saith, “I have dwelt in the tents of Kedar;” ( Ps. cxx. 5 .) and, “By the waters of Babylon, there we sat down and wept:” ( cxxxvii. 1 .) yet he neither saw Babylon, nor the tents of Kedar.
St John Chrysostom The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on the Epistle to the Hebrews, Hebrews 11.20-22
[7.] Therefore let us also, as being in Babylon, [do the same]. For although we are not sitting among warlike foes, yet we are among enemies. For some [of them] indeed were sitting as captives, but others did not even feel their captivity, as Daniel, as the three children (cf. Ps. cxxxvii. 1 ); who even while they were in captivity became in that very country more glorious even than the king who had carried them captive. And he who had taken them captive does obeisance to the captives.
St Jerome The Letters of St. Jerome, Paula and Eustochium to Marcella
What are God’s first words to Abraham? “Get thee out of thy country and from thy kindred unto a land that I will show thee.” The patriarch, the first to receive a promise of Christ, is here told to leave the Chaldees, to leave the city of confusion and its rehoboth or broad places; to leave also the plain of Shinar, where the tower of pride had been raised to heaven. He has to pass through the waves of this world, and to ford its rivers; those by which the saints sat down and wept when they remembered Zion, and Chebar’s flood, whence Ezekiel was carried to Jerusalem by the hair of his head. All this Abraham undergoes that he may dwell in a land of promise watered from above, and not like Egypt, from below, no producer of herbs for the weak and ailing, but a land that looks for the early and the latter rain from heaven. It is a land of hills and valleys, and stands high above the sea. …
St John Damascene An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith, Concerning the question, when Christ was called
And although the holy Scripture says, Therefore God, thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness , it is to be observed that the holy Scripture often uses the past tense instead of the future, as for example here: Thereafter He was seen upon the earth and dwelt among men . For as yet God was not seen nor did He dwell among men when this was said. And here again: By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down; yea wept . For as yet these things had not come to pass.
St Ambrose Concerning Repentance, Chapter XI. The possibility of repentance is a reason why baptism should not be deferred to old age, a practice which is against the will of God in holy Scripture. But it is of no use to practise penance whilst still serving lusts. These must be first subdued
101. But of those who as exiles and banished from their ancestral homes, which the holy law of Moses had assigned them, will be entangled in the errors of the world, you hear him saying: “By the waters of Babylon we sat down and wept, when we remembered Zion.” He sets forth the wailings of those who have fallen, and shows that they who are living in this condition of passing time and changing circumstances ought to repent, after the example of those who, as a reward for sin, had been led into miserable captivity.